Pandora University
by SeaWraith46
Summary: A modern day gaigel college au in which Angel starts out as a lonely freshman but ends up with a girlfriend and an adopted family.
1. Chapter 1 - Pizza and Pirates

**This is probably going to be a series of short snap shots of Gaige, Angel, and all the other vault hunters interacting and growing closer. There won't be much of an overall plot and I'll just write them whenever I have the time and ideas. If you have ideas for some shenanigans the group could get up to, I would appreciate it if you could let me know in a review, a private message, or a message on** **tumblr (there's a link to my tumblr on my author profile page)** **. Also if you have any ideas for a better title, please let me know, I'm terrible at them.**

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Angel glanced at the clock as Professor Tannis turned her back on the class to draw on the white board, suppressing the urge to start bouncing her leg as she watched the hands of the clock tick closer to the end of class. Her eyes flicked back to the board at the front of the room and she squinted, trying to focus on whatever chemical reaction they were learning about today. After a few seconds, she gave up and glanced down at her notes, which were covered in more doodles than usual. She let her eyes travel through the spirals she had scribbled in the margins of her notebook, a tight knot growing in her stomach. It was almost time for lunch again. Which meant another half an hour of sitting and eating by herself before trudging to her next class.

She couldn't figure out why her lack of friends was bothering her so much lately. Growing up, her father had switched jobs every few years, moving them from college town to college town as he rose through the ranks of administrators, which had made it difficult to build any lasting friendships.

Now that he was president of Pandora University, Angel guessed they wouldn't be moving for a while. Knowing that hadn't made making friends any easier, however. She was already shy to begin with and most of the students seemed to know that she was the daughter of the university president, which made her feel even more awkward.

So here she was, halfway through her first semester of college, friendless and dreading lonely meals in the cafeteria. It wasn't exactly how she'd hoped things would be going at this point. She should have known better. No one had been rude or mean to her because of her dad's position, but people were…careful around her. They didn't want to get on her or her dad's bad side.

The clock ticked off the last seconds of class, causing the students around her to begin packing up their belongings but Angel continued to stare at her notebook, in no hurry to get to the cafeteria and eat another meal by herself.

"Um, hello?" a voice asked next to her and Angel jumped, dropping her pen. She looked to her right and saw a girl standing a foot or so away, smiling at her hesitantly. The girl had red hair pulled into short pig tails on either side of her head and bright green eyes. When Angel didn't respond immediately, the girl's smile dropped somewhat and she pulled up the left sleeve of her oversized sweatshirt to reveal part of a prosthetic arm, her right hand beginning to fiddle with a small bolt on her robotic wrist. "Uh, are you at least going to say hi back?"

"Oh, right, yes, I'm sorry," Angel said quickly, sticking out her hand. "Hi. I'm Angel."

The girl's eyes lit up as her smile grew again, stepping forward and extending her right arm to shake Angel's hand. "I'm Gaige."

"Good to meet you, Gaige," Angel said. "Was there something you wanted from me?"

"Oh, uh, I guess I just wanted to ask…I mean I noticed that…look, I see you eating alone every day after class and you always look really sad so I just wanted to ask if you wanted to, like, sit with me and my friends at lunch today?"

Before Angel could open her mouth to respond, Gaige threw up her hands with an exasperated sigh. "Wait that probably sounded like I'm asking you out of pity or something, sorry. You seem really cool and I think we could maybe be friends or something, that's why I'm asking if you want to sit with me and my friends."

Angel's immediate instinct was to decline Gaige's offer. Sure, being lonely hurt sometimes, but being alone was familiar and comfortable. But another part of her was tired of sitting by herself. And a smaller, quieter part of her was intrigued by Gaige.

"I'd love to, Gaige, thank you," Angel said finally. She couldn't help but smile when Gaige immediately pumped her fist in the air.

"Sweet! Should we walk to the dining hall together then?"

"Yeah, just let me get my things…" Angel trailed off as she grabbed her notebook and pen and stuffed them in her bag. Once she was ready, Gaige bounced ahead of her to hold open the classroom door.

"Thanks," Angel said, laughing as Gaige bowed slightly and held her free arm out to direct Angel through the doorway.

"So, did you understand anything in today's lesson?" Gaige asked once they had set off down the hallway.

"Honestly, I wasn't really paying that close attention, so, no," Angel admitted.

"Ah, damn, that's too bad," Gaige said, jumping forward again to hold open the door to the street. "Half the time I have no idea what's going on in that class."

"Have you tried going to Professor Tannis' office hours to get help?"

Gaige laughed. "I did, once. But Tannis seemed pretty surprised that someone actually showed up to her office hours. And horrified. Actually, she kind of looked like she was going to throw up as soon as I started talking to her so I left as quickly as I could."

"Really? She seems to do all right teaching in front of a class."

"Yeah, I guess it's just the one on one stuff that's a problem for her. Which isn't so bad, our textbook is pretty good even if it is boring. I've mostly been able to figure things out by reading it after class."

"Maybe we could study together sometime," Angel suggested as they approached the building that housed the cafeteria. This time Angel stepped forward and held open the door before Gaige got the chance, causing Gaige to grin at her.

"That would be kick ass," Gaige said, walking over to the cubbies near the cafeteria entrance and depositing her backpack in one of them. Angel followed suit and they entered the dining hall together.

"Okay, let's get some food and then meet over there," Gaige said as she pointed to the area near the drink dispensers.

Angel nodded and they split up, meeting at the specified spot a few minutes later. As they got their drinks, Angel felt nervousness bubbling up in her stomach again, her grip tightening on the edges of her tray.

"Ready?" Gaige asked, frowning slightly when Angel hesitated. "Everything okay?"

"I just…I don't know if…" Angel sighed, her eyes dropping down to stare at the slice of pizza on her tray. "I'm not very good with people."

"Okay, um, how about this? We'll try sitting with my friends but if it gets too overwhelming we can go sit somewhere by ourselves." Gaige balanced her tray on her prosthetic forearm and reached over to squeeze Angel's shoulder with her other hand. "My friends are really cool, so they won't hold it against us if we leave. Well, they'll probably tease me, but you should be fine. Just don't pull a Tannis and throw up on them and everything should be fine, I promise."

Angel offered Gaige a weak smile. "Thanks. I'll let you know if I need to leave."

Gaige gave Angel's shoulder one final squeeze before nodding and leading the way to a table near the back of the seating area. As they approached the table, the people seated at it burst into laughter, allowing Angel and Gaige to find their seats with little fanfare.

"Hey, everybody!" Gaige all but yelled. "This is Angel. Angel, this is—"

"Wait, are you in Gaige's chem class?" a large, bearded man with a Band-Aid on his nose asked.

"Yes, she is," Gaige cut in before Angel could answer. "I'm trying to introduce her, Salvador, so be quiet."

Salvador burst into laughter and smacked the person sitting next to him on the arm. "Brick! Hey, Brick! You owe me five bucks."

Brick, a muscular man who was somehow even larger than Salvador, turned to look at Angel before also starting to laugh. "Ha ha, Gaige actually did it!"

Gaige, whose cheeks were turning slightly pink, spluttered out, "Brick, shut up, I'm trying to—"

The woman sitting next to Gaige, who had blue hair, pale skin, and tattoos spiraling up her right arm, turned to look at Angel. "Oh my god, you're the cute girl from Gaige's chem class, aren't you? Gaige has been talking about asking you to eat with us for the last week. I'm glad she finally did it."

Angel felt heat rising to her cheeks, opening and closing her mouth several times but at a loss for words. She glanced over at Gaige, who was now holding her face in her hands, her ears a bright, burning red.

"I'm Maya," the blue haired woman said. "I'll take over introductions, since Gaige seems to be a little too embarrassed to do it right now."

Gaige removed one hand from her face to shoot Maya the bird, causing everyone at the table to laugh.

"So that's Brick and Salvador," Maya said, pointing to the two men who had teased Gaige earlier, who were now engaged in an arm wrestling contest.

Maya gestured toward the two people sitting opposite Brick and Salvador. One was dressed in all black except for a red Pandora University baseball cap that had various emojis written on the bill in permanent marker. The other was wearing a sweatshirt with the hood pulled up to cover most of his face, his muscular physique obvious even through the bulky fabric. "That's Zero and Krieg."

She elbowed the thin man sitting on her other side, who had his arms folded on the table, his head resting on his forearms as he slept. Maya's nudge woke him and he lifted his head, blinking blearily and taking a sip from a thermos before falling back asleep. "This is Mordecai. I would recommend not asking to drink out of his thermos, I can guarantee he's got something a lot stronger than water in there.

"Roland, Lilith, and Axton aren't here right now, but they usually sit with us, too. Axton's at an ROTC meeting and Roland and Lilith are…"

"Gettin' a little afternoon delight!" Brick yelled as Salvador pulled his arms back while thrusting his hips forward repeatedly.

Maya laughed, shaking her head. "Anyway, that's all of us. And you're name's Angel, right? That's a really pretty name."

"Thank you. It's good to meet you all," Angel said, looking around the table with a small smile.

"Wait, what would Angel do on our pirate ship?" Brick asked.

Gaige finally lifted her head to give Brick a confused look. "What? Pirate ship?"

"It's what we were talking about before you two got here," Salvador explained. "If our friend group was on a pirate ship, who would have which job."

"Mordecai is the drunken lookout in the crow's nest," Maya said, elbowing Mordecai, who grunted but kept sleeping.

"Roland would be the captain, then, wouldn't he?" Krieg asked.

"Nah, I already called dibs on being captain," Brick said.

"You can't be captain, you'd resolve every conflict by punching someone," Salvador said, laughing as Brick punched him on the arm.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Brick said indignantly, making Angel giggle and almost choke on her bite of food.

Maya, who had been scrolling through her phone for the past few seconds, looked up and said, "Hey, Brick, Professor Ellie sent out emails with our grades for those papers we handed in last week."

Brick took out his phone and tapped the screen several times before letting out a groan. "Aw man, I got another B."

"Why are you so sad/what upsets you about that/it is a fine grade," Zero said.

"Because I got Bs on my last three papers. And every time I've gone into office hours and tried to completely change how I wrote the papers and still I only get Bs."

"Just don't throw another manhole cover, bro," Salvador said.

Gaige started laughing through her bite of pizza and then caught sight of Angel's confused look, swallowing before explaining, "The last time he got a B on a paper he went on a run to try to calm himself down. But it only made him angrier so he ended up throwing a manhole cover across a street."

"I think campus security is still trying to figure out who did that," Maya said.

Brick grinned. "They'll never catch me alive."

Angel glanced at the clock on a nearby wall and all but jumped out of her seat. "Oh! I should leave or I'm going to be late for my next class. It was nice to meet you all, thank you so much for letting me sit with you."

"Can Gaige walk you there?" Maya asked, earning a glare from Gaige. "Oh, come on, you know you want to."

Gaige looked at Angel, who smiled and nodded, then stood and grabbed her tray. "Later, losers. I'll see you all at dinner."

Angel and Gaige made their way through the dining hall, depositing their trays at the cleaning station and retrieving their backpacks from outside the cafeteria.

"So where are we headed?" Gaige asked.

"Back to the science building. I have biology with Hammerlock next," Angel said.

"Sweet. How's Hammerlock as a professor? I've heard good things but I don't have his class until next semester."

"He's really good. Very enthusiastic. And I like his accent a lot, it makes listening to lectures more interesting."

"I heard he's got kind of a weird TA this semester. He goes by CT, which stands for…damn what was it?"

"Claptrap. But, yeah, he usually goes by CT. He's also very…enthusiastic. And talkative." Angel scrunched up her nose. "He hardly ever stops talking, actually."

Gaige laughed. "That's a cute face, you should make that one more often."

"Uh, thanks." Angel ducked her head, letting her hair fall over her face to try and hide her blush.

Gaige paused just inside the doors of the science building. "Um, which way are we going now? I don't actually know which classroom is Hammerlock's."

"Oh, it's down this hallway, but I think I can make it the rest of the way on my own. Thanks for inviting me to have lunch with you and your friends today, it was really fun," Angel said.

"I'm glad you had fun! You can sit with us whenever you want. And we definitely need to study together sometime."

"I'd love to have lunch with you all again. And studying together sounds great. Um," Angel darted forward and placed a soft kiss on Gaige's cheek. "Thanks again."

Gaige looked shocked for a few seconds, raising her hand to where Angel's lips had touched her face before grinning hugely.

"I'll see you later," Angel said, spinning around and hurrying down the hallway. She couldn't help but smile when she heard Gaige let out a loud whoop behind her.

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 **P.S. I apologize for my terrible haiku.**


	2. Chapter 2 - Studying or Something Else?

**Someone left a nice comment on the first chapter of this fic on ao3 a while ago and inspired me to pick it up again, so here's a new chapter! I can't really commit to a regular update schedule but I'm going to do my best to post new chapters as often as possible.**

 **However, I didn't write down any of my ideas for future chapters when I first came up with the concept for this fic, so I would really appreciate it if you could leave me suggestions for other things Angel and the Vault Hunters could get up to in a review, a private message, or a message on tumblr (there's a link to my tumblr on my author profile page). I would like to keep this fic going for a while and I'll do my best to come up with ideas to make that happen but I could really use your help as well.**

 **Special thanks to Thomas for being my beta for this fic.**

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Angel sat up on her bed and leaned back against the wall, pulling her chemistry textbook into her lap. She was hoping this new position would help her focus better, but she managed to keep her eyes on her textbook for only a few seconds before her gaze slid back to at her phone lying on the comforter about a foot away from her. A second later it buzzed and Angel almost knocked her textbook on the floor in her haste to grab it.

She glanced hopefully at the screen, her face falling when she saw it was just an email from a professor about class being canceled tomorrow. Setting her phone back on the blanket, she moved her textbook back into her lap and pouted down at the diagrams of chemical reactions.

It was now going on two hours since Gaige had last texted her. Angel wasn't worried, not really. It was just…odd. Gaige never took this long to text back, not even when she had class. They had been texting almost constantly since Angel had sat with Gaige and her friends a week ago and Angel had never been happier with a decision in her life.

Seeing Gaige everyday had been beyond wonderful. And Angel was finally getting used to her new friends' teasing to the point where their snarky comments and digs hardly made her blush anymore. Unless it was a particularly lewd comment from Brick or Salvador. Those remarks were never directed at her or made with any other intent than to be humorous, but she was pretty sure they would always make her blush.

But she had friends now, actual friends who let her in on their jokes and asked her how her day was going every time they saw her. She had never before been in one place long enough and been able to overcome her shyness in order to make friends. And now she had ten of them, all thanks to Gaige.

Angel smiled, flushing slightly as she looked down at her phone. Gaige. Angel had never met anyone so full of energy and enthusiasm before. Or anyone so confident. Everyone in the group Gaige hung out with was a senior, but Gaige didn't seem to be intimidated by that at all. Apparently that's what had gotten Gaige into that friend group in the first place—Gaige had seen them practicing for their intramural Quidditch game and essentially demanded that she be allowed to join their team. But she was Gaige, so of course the situation had worked out perfectly for her.

Angel's phone vibrated again and she snatched it up, a smile breaking out across her face when she saw that it was a call from Gaige. She tapped the screen to accept the call and brought the phone up to her ear.

"Hey," Angel said, trying not to sound too much like she had been eagerly waiting for Gaige to contact her for the past two hours.

"Angel! Hey!" Gaige almost yelled and Angel's smile grew even wider. "Sorry, that was probably too loud. I hope your ear is okay."

Angel laughed. "No, it's okay, my ear is just fine."

"I was wondering if you wanted to study together. I'm really lost reading our chem textbook lately."

"Uh, right now?" Angel asked, feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement bubble up in her stomach.

"Yeah, unless this is a bad time or something?"

"No, it's not, it's just…unexpected. I'd love to study with you. I just need a minute to, uh, get ready."

"Well, I hope you can get ready fast, 'cause I'm kinda already outside your dorm," Gaige said.

Angel froze. "What?"

"I got the idea that we should study together and I started walking over to your dorm but then I realized that I should probably call you first and make sure it was okay. So, sorry for the short notice, but I'm pretty much already at your room."

There was a hint of an apology in Gaige's tone but it was almost entirely overwhelmed by her exuberance and Angel couldn't help but laugh. "That's fine, just, uh, walk up here slowly or something so I have a minute to get ready."

"Walk slowly, Yes, ma'am," Gaige said. There was a pause before she continued, "I saluted and then realized you couldn't see me."

Angel giggled. "Okay. You'll have to show me your salute when you get here."

"Will do. See you in a minute," Gaige said before ending the call.

Angel took the phone from her ear and dropped it back on the bed. "Gaige is coming to my room," she said happily, then in a slightly more panicked tone, "Gaige is coming to my room. Oh, crap, _Gaige is coming to my room_."

She scooted off her bed and stood in the middle of her room, whirling around looking for something to tidy before Gaige got there. All she found was her usual meticulously stacked books on her desk, a tidy row of her shampoo and hair products on her dresser, and her clothes either neatly tucked away in drawers or hanging up in an even row in her closet.

"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath. "My room is clean, and my outfit…oh, my outfit!"

Angel stepped in front of the mirror on the back of her closet door, running her hands over her t-shirt in an attempt to remove some non-existent wrinkles. She glanced to the side and saw a Pandora University sweatshirt hanging on the handle of her closet door.

Yanking the garment from its hanger, Angel quickly pulled it over her head and looked back into the mirror. "Should I wear the sweatshirt?" She studied her reflection for a beat before taking it off and consulting the mirror once more. "Crap, I mean, darn, do I wear the sweatshirt or not?"

There was a knock at the door and Angel glanced around her room one last time to make sure everything was in order. She put her sweatshirt halfway on again before taking it off for a final time, tossing it onto the bed and going to answer the door.

"Hi!" Angel said little breathlessly when she opened the door to find Gaige in the hallway. She reached up to smooth her hair, realizing it had probably gotten mussed from when she took her sweatshirt on and off. "Uh, come on in," she said, stepping back to allow Gaige into her room.

Gaige walked in and stood in the center of the room, smiling when she noticed Angel's pastel blue rug and the highlighters on her desk that were organized by color. "I like your room," she said, turning to Angel with a grin. "It's very 'you'."

Angel flushed slightly but before she could reply, Gaige threw up her hands.

"Wait, sorry, I feel like that sounded bad when I said that, let me rephrase," Gaige said. She brought her prosthetic hand up to her face, tapping her fingers on her chin as she thought. "Your room is nice because it reminds me of you. It's clean and tidy, but still cozy. Wait, part of that still sounded bad, didn't it?"

Angel laughed despite the increase in her blush. "No, it's okay, I think I get what you mean."

Gaige grinned at her and Angel felt a small smile play across her face. She stared at Gaige for a few more seconds and then ducked her head, realizing that she had been staring, but Gaige didn't seem to mind or notice.

"What part of the textbook were you having trouble understanding?" Angel asked as she walked over to her bed. She sat down and pulled the textbook into her lap. "I was having some trouble with it, too, but after I looked up some stuff online I…"

She trailed off, looking up to find Gaige still standing in the middle of her room with a huge grin on her face. "Uh, did you still want to study together?"

"Umm." Gaige strode over to the bed and sat down next to Angel. "Not exactly."

Angel slowly closed her textbook, suddenly very conscious of the fact that Gaige's hand was right next to hers on the bedspread. "Was there…was there something else you wanted to do?"

Gaige jumped up, spinning around to look at Angel and clasping her hands together. "Okay, so there's this pumpkin at one of my friends' houses and I want to steal it."

Angel blinked, feeling a little thrown off by how close Gaige had been and then how quickly she had moved away. "And then what?"

"I want to throw it off a building."

"You want to…what?" Angel asked, regarding Gaige with a bemused expression.

Gaige walked over to the bed to stand directly in front of Angel, grabbing the hand Angel had resting on her textbook. "Come on, it'll be fun. We'll steal the pumpkin and then drop it off the second story of a building. Or maybe the third story." Gaige grinned down at Angel and squeezed her hand. "I bet it'll make an awesome noise when it hits the ground and explodes everywhere! It'll be awesome, I promise."

Angel's cheeks were burning as she glanced from her hand, which Gaige was still holding tightly, up to Gaige's brilliantly smiling face. When she didn't respond after a few seconds, Gaige dropped Angel's hand and flopped down onto the bed next to her. "If you don't want to we can stay here and study, I guess. But the pumpkin would be waaay more fun."

Angel reached up to push a strand of hair back behind her ear. "Um, studying would probably be a good idea," she said, smiling slightly when she heard Gaige groan. "But the throwing a pumpkin off a building does sound more fun."

Gaige rocketed into a sitting position, leaning in close to Angel's face. "So you'll help me steal it?"

"Yes," Angel said, laughing as Gaige pushed off from the bed to do a short victory dance.

"Sweet!" Gaige yelled, almost leaping forward to grab Angel's hand. "Let's go now, before my friends get back from class so we can steal it without them noticing. Are you ready?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess," Angel said as Gaige pulled her up from the bed.

"Well, that's not a very good attitude," Gaige huffed, leading Angel into the hallway. "We're about to commit robbery and then throw our spoils off a building. You should be more excited."

Angel laughed and tugged her hand from Gaige's grip before she was towed down the hallway. "Hang on, I have to lock my door," she said, pulling her key from her pocket. "And I promise, I'm really excited."

She turned to grin at Gaige, who returned her expression with an even bigger and brighter smile.

They stared at each other for a moment until Gaige glanced at the door. "Uh, weren't you going to lock that?"

"Oh right, yeah," Angel said, feeling embarrassment burn slightly on her cheeks. She locked the door, attempting to turn the handle afterward to make sure it was secure and then looked back to Gaige. "Okay. Let's go steal a pumpkin."

"And then throw it off a building!" Gaige said, grabbing Angel's hand again before running down the hallway, Angel laughing as she struggled to keep up.


End file.
